Jim, learn to speak correctly, please. I think it would have been better for all concerned if you had said, on each occasion, something like: "I tried out his suggestions and they didn't work the way I wanted." My suggestions worked more than fine for myself and for many others, or so it would seem, but not for you. You have made a handful of absolute statements that appear to be 100 percent this or that, and I have refuted them at least to the points where they are leaking and you have start bailing water. This is what happens when ideas are half matching and half not. . .! Get used to it. . .please. Stop making such absolute statements as iPad cannot do this or that, and start making statements such as the iPad doesn't do this in some way that I would prefer, such as. . .then be specific. I did what I did. . .you can't actually deny that I did these things but you CAN say that this is not exactly what _I_ had in mind when I said the words that prompted you to try those things. There is a spirit of cooperation that has been lacking from the get- go and it is both between you and Apple and between you and me. It would be nice, very nice, if we could fix that up a little. Sincerely, Michael On Wed, 21 Apr 2010, James Adcock wrote:

...

i think he's complaining because he thought he was taking part in an actual dialog, so when he realized he'd been suckered into a bitch session, he chafed...

Well, I guess we both suffered in this regard because I’m also just back from a trip yet I made two long trips to the mall to try out his suggestions and they didn’t work.  If I had thought it was just a B session I surely wouldn’t have bothered to make the trips.

On Wed, 21 Apr 2010, James Adcock wrote:

...

My suggestions worked more than fine for myself and for many others, or so it would seem, but not for you.

OK, but then be clear that you are suggesting something different than what I was asking for. You could have said for example "I don't know how to do what you want to do but if you try this app then it allows you to read their selection of free PDF books instead of getting your choice of ePUB or MOBI books."

I did what you said could not be done. You did not mention .mobi when you started, did you? I was specific about each program I used, but I perhaps should have once again made it obvious that when I download from pglaf.org I am getting the .txt files, and I don't recall you specifying formats-- just that it was impossible to download eBooks from pglaf.org Which I proved false. I don't recall anything about about .pdf, .mobi, or .epub at first. To me this was merely, and I apologize, part of the bitch sessions.

I think I was pretty clear that what I wanted was a way to download a free ePUB or a MOBI file that I find at some location on the web to an iPad and read it there -- that is after all what most people would consider "The eBook Experience" -- the ability to actually HAVE an ePub or MOBI just like

Again, I must remind you once more, I am the wrong person to talk to about saving in YOUR favorite format. . .that is strictly up to YOU, not to me. I downloaded files, I can take them on a plane or to the beach. I don't deal with paper, again you have the wrong person.

you have HAVE a paperback or you actually HAVE a printout if you prefer to print out a postscript copy of a PG book on your laserprinter. And by HAVING something I mean you can take it with you and read it on an airplane or on a beach -- all those things that people are used to doing with a paperback or a printout and are used to doing with other ebook readers.

This I must say I doubt, but it is really non-sequitur to what has passed.

I would hope we could agree by now that this is not the iPad business model. Rather the iPad business model is either you "buy" the book from Apple (including a subset of "free" books that Apple has rebranded as coming from

A very large subset. . .perhaps even larger than any other comparable subset. Comparable meaning you can use something like "NOT Mark Twain" as a subset.

Apple), or if you are a publisher you write your own applet for iPad to

Again, I must once again refer you to Wattpad, for the fifth? time.

distribute your own works (I guess PG can write its own applet if it wants to have a presence on iPad but I'm not sure I'm the one to take that one on

So far we have been pretty happy with the Wattpad app, but, yes, I think in time we SHOULD write out own apps.

-- maybe PG already has an iPhone programmer somewhere who can take that one on?) or if you are the person who actually bought the iPad you are given your own degraded transfer path via internet->desktop->iTunes->USB-iPad where presumably Apple is blocking that wifi transfer path for the same reason that B&N nook is blocking the wifi transfer path, namely to sell more books. Sorry but having already hooked up a ebook reader to my desktop by USB 1000+ times I can assure you that the USB connection path starts to get really really old!

I'm glad you brought up that the nook doesn't allow "real" wifi [at all!!!] I was going to get after you about that, and the other things nook, Sony or Kindle do to herd you onto the "company store" turf. Not sure how many remember "company stores" these days. mh

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On Wed, 21 Apr 2010, James Adcock wrote:

...

Again, I must once again refer you to Wattpad, for the fifth? time.

I DID download and install the Wattpad and I DID discuss this earlier and again it appeared to me to only be yet another app that displays a slightly hacked version of ascii txt files shipped from their own private server. It did not appear to have any way to get an ePUB or MOBI book from a location I choose on the internet.

You seem to be avoiding the point that they say it IS an .epub you read with Wattpad. . .and iBooks. . .and many others. You HAVE downloaded .epubs, or so it would appear, and _I_ have, so it would appear, if we believe it's the iPad default. You are hitting the target, but trying to deny it. Do more research. . .perhaps you can find ONE that not .epub! You could be famous!!!

...

I was going to get after you about that, and the other things nook, Sony or Kindle do to herd you onto the "company store" turf.

ALL of the materials I have mentioned are free of charge. Once again. . .the target has been hit. . .you are in denial.

iTunes and the Apple App Store are both "company store" turfs as far as I can see -- especially when Jobs can tell Stanza to take out a feature that customers to share free books with their friends--a feature they have to come to rely on-- and why -- because Jobs is introducing a competitive app and Jobs wants to cook the books so that his app wins. That if one even wants to install a free ePUB book via *USB* you *still* have to run it through the iTunes "company store" is particularly galling to me. I don't understand why you have to take this path if Apple isn't DRM'ing the free books???

For the record:

Nook "company store" -- nook is hopelessly "locked down" as I have said many times.

Gee, I wonder who said all that "company store" stuff here before you did??? Enough. . .you are now just talking to yourself, unless you can tempt bowerbird to keep after you.

Sony "company store" -- don't know the wifi version if any, I just know that lots of people who work with PG/DP transfer ebooks to Sony via USB.

Kindle "company store" -- offers about the same "features" as the iBooks "company store", plus you can USB by *direct connection* to your computer without having to go though an iTunes-like "company store" applet, plus it has an "experiment web browser" that allows you to download free MOBI books directly from the internet via whispernet, plus it allows one to quickly and easily write a "Magic Catalog" type ebook which in turn can pull down other free MOBI books from the internet via whispernet. Now whispernet is slow and unreliable compared to wifi at least in the 'burbs where I live. And the Kindle browser is weak and sucky -- but at least it hasn't been "pimped" to prevent the download of free ebooks from the internet! And you can also do all these things with PDF Files and TXT files and they will all also actually end up inside your Kindle on the standard bookshelf so that they will still be there when you want to read them, whether on the beach or on an airplane, etc. But the slow and unreliable whispernet plus the weak web browser all reasons why I am still looking for an ebook reader that uses wifi, which hasn't "pimped" that wifi, and hasn't "pimped" the web browser either!

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